DOOMSDAY URGENCY OF CULTS

A common feature of many of the abusive and dangerous cults is a belief in some sort of doomsday event or period.  The leaders of these cults use these beliefs to create a sense of urgency in their followers, to pressure them to prepare for the event.  This added artificial pressure often leads to stress, and can also produce depression based on a sense of failure to meet expectations.  Sometimes a cult will destroy itself, sometimes the leader engages in abusive behavior, and sometimes the abusive and destructive behavior gets directed outward.

Here is a list of doomsday teachers that founded groups or movements that are known to have become abusive or destructive:

Joseph Smith - Latter Day Saints (Mormons)

Ellen G. White - Seventh Day Adventist

Charles Taze Russell - Jehovah Witnesses

John Alexander Dowie - Divine Healing

Charles Fox Parham - Pentecostalism

Roy E. Davis - Ku Klux Klan

Wesley Swift - Christian Identity

William Branham - Latter Rain Healing Revivals

Jim Jones - People's Temple

David Koresh - Branch Davidians, offshoot of SDA

Marshall Applewhite - Heaven's Gate

This is not a complete list.  It does not include all the offshoots of the more widespread groups, smaller groups that affected only a handful of people, and groups outside the US.

Now, major faiths such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam do have doomsday-like beliefs, but the major emphasis of those faiths in not on the apocalyptic doctrines.  If you belong to a group that focuses on end-times, destruction, plagues, catastrophes, and such, look for other signs that it might be a cult.